Part 20

The fact that things pursue their course _independently_ of the voice of the many, is the reason why, a few astonishing things have taken place on earth.

886.

_The Order of Rank in Human Values._

_(a)_ A man should not be valued according to isolated acts. _Epidermal actions._ Nothing is more rare than a _personal_ act. Class, rank, race, environment, accident--all these things are much more likely to be expressed in an action or deed than the "personality" of the doer.

_(b)_ We should on no account jump to the conclusion that there are many people who are personalities. Some men are but conglomerations of personalities, whilst the majority are not even _one._ In all cases in which those average qualities preponderate, which ensure the maintenance of the species, to be a personality would involve unnecessary expense, it would be a luxury in fact, it would be foolish to demand of anybody that he should be a personality. In such circumstances everybody is a channel or a transmitting vessel.

_(c)_ A "personality" is a relatively _isolated_ phenomenon; in view of the superior importance of the continuation of the race at an average level, a personality might even be regarded as something _hostile to nature._ For a personality to be possible, timely isolation and the necessity for an existence of offence and defence, are prerequisites; something in the nature of a walled enclosure, a capacity for shutting out the world; but above all, a much _lower degree of sensitiveness_ than the average man has, who is too easily infected with the views of others.

The first _question_ concerning the _order of rank:_ how far is a man disposed to be _solitary_ or _gregarious?_ (in the latter case, his value consists in those qualities which secure the survival of his tribe or his type; in the former case, his qualities are those which distinguish him from others, which isolate and defend him, and make his _solitude possible_).

_Consequence:_ the solitary type should not be valued from the standpoint of the gregarious type, or _vice versâ._

Viewed from above, both types are necessary; as is likewise their antagonism,--and nothing is _more_ thoroughly reprehensible than the "desire" which would develop a _third_ thing out of the two ("virtue" as hermaphroditism). This is as little worthy of desire as the equalisation and reconciliation of the sexes. The _distinguishing qualities must be developed ever more and more,_ the gulf must _be made ever wider...._

The concept of _degeneration_ in both cases: the approximation of the qualities of the herd to those of solitary creatures: and _vice versâ_--in short, when they begin to _resemble_ each other. This concept of degeneration is beyond the sphere of moral judgments.

887.

Where the _strongest natures_ are to be sought. The ruin and degeneration of the _solitary_ species is much greater and more terrible: they have the instincts of the herd, and the tradition of values, against them; their weapons of defence, their instincts of self-preservation, are from the beginning insufficiently strong and reliable--fortune must be peculiarly favourable to them if they are _to prosper_ (they prosper best in the lowest ranks and dregs of society; if ye are seeking _personalities_ it is there that ye will find them with much greater certainty than in the middle classes!)

When the dispute between ranks and classes, which aims at equality of rights, is almost settled, the fight will begin against the _solitary person._ (In a certain sense _the latter can maintain and develop himself most easily in a democratic society:_ there where the coarser means of defence are no longer necessary, and a certain habit of order, honesty, justice, trust, is already a general condition.) The _strongest_ must be most tightly bound, most strictly watched, laid in chains and supervised: this is the instinct of the herd. To them belongs a régime of self-mastery, of ascetic detachment, of "duties" consisting in exhausting work, in which one can no longer call one's soul one's own.

888.

I am attempting an _economic_ justification of virtue. The object is to make man as useful as possible, and to make him approximate as nearly as one can to an infallible machine: to this end he must be equipped with _machine-like virtues_ (he must learn to value those states in which he works in a most mechanically useful way, as the highest of all: to this end it is necessary to make him as disgusted as possible with the other states, and to represent them as very dangerous and despicable).

Here is the first stumbling-block: the tediousness and monotony which all mechanical activity brings with it. To learn to endure _this_--and not only to endure it, but to see tedium enveloped in a ray of exceeding charm: this hitherto has been the task of all higher schools. To learn something which you don't care a fig about, and to find precisely your "duty" in this "objective" activity; to learn to value happiness and duty as things apart; this is the invaluable task and performance of higher schools. It is on this account that the philologist has, hitherto, been the educator _per se:_ because his activity, in itself, affords the best pattern of magnificent monotony in action; under his banner youths learn to "swat": first prerequisite for the thorough fulfilment of mechanical duties in the future (as State officials, husbands, slaves of the desk, newspaper readers, and soldiers). Such an existence may perhaps require a philosophical glorification and justification more than any other: pleasurable feelings must be valued by some sort of infallible tribunal, as altogether of inferior rank; "duty _per se_" perhaps even the pathos of reverence in regard to everything unpleasant,--must be demanded imperatively as that which is above all useful, delightful, and practical things.... A mechanical form of existence regarded as the highest and most respectable form of existence, worshipping itself (type: Kant as the fanatic of the formal concept "Thou shalt").

889.

The economic valuation of all the ideals that have existed hitherto--that is to say, the selection and rearing of definite passions and states at the cost of other passions and states. The lawgiver (or the instinct of the community) selects a number of states and passions the existence of which guarantees the performance of regular actions (mechanical actions would thus be the result of the regular requirements of those passions and states).

In the event of these states and passions containing ingredients which were painful, a means would have to be found for overcoming this painfulness by means of a valuation; pain would have to be interpreted as something valuable, as something pleasurable in a higher sense. Conceived in a formula: "_How does something unpleasant become pleasant?_" For instance, when our obedience and our submission to the law become honoured, thanks to the energy, power, and self-control they entail. The same holds good of our public spirit, of our neighbourliness, of our patriotism, our "humanisation," our "altruism," and our "heroism." The _object of all idealism_ should, be to induce people to do unpleasant things cheerfully.

890.

The _belittlement_ of man must be held as the chief aim for a long while: because what is needed in the first place is a broad basis from which a stronger species of man may arise (to what extent hitherto has _every stronger_ species of man arisen from a _substratum of inferior people?_).

891.

The absurd and contemptible form of idealism which would not have mediocrity mediocre, and which instead of feeling triumphant at being exceptional, becomes _indignant_ at cowardice, falseness, pettiness, and wretchedness. _We should not wish things to be any different,_ we should make the gulfs even _wider_!--The higher types among men should be compelled to distinguish themselves by means of the sacrifices which they make to their own existence.

_Principal point of view; distances_ must be established, but _no contrasts must be created._ The _middle classes_ must be dissolved, and their influence decreased: this is the principal means of maintaining distances.

892.

Who would dare to disgust the mediocre of their mediocrity! As you observe, I do precisely the reverse: every step away from mediocrity--thus do I teach--leads to _immorality._

893.

To hate mediocrity is unworthy of a philosopher: it is almost a note of interrogation to his "_right_ to philosophy." It is precisely because he is the exception that he must protect the rule and ingratiate all mediocre people.

894.

What I combat: that an exceptional form should make war upon the rule--instead of understanding that the continued existence of the rule is the first condition of the value of the exception. For instance, there are women who, instead of considering their abnormal thirst for knowledge as a distinction, would fain dislocate the whole status of womanhood.

895.

The _increase of strength_ despite the temporary ruin of the individual:--

A new level must be established;

We must have a method of storing up forces for the maintenance of small performances, in opposition to economic waste;

Destructive nature must for once be reduced to an _instrument_ of this economy of the future;

The weak must be maintained, because there is an enormous mass of _finicking_ work to be done;

The weak and the suffering must be upheld in their belief that existence is still possible;

_Solidarity_ must be implanted as an instinct opposed to the instinct of fear and servility;

War must be made upon accident, even upon the accident of "the great man."

896.

War upon _great_ men justified on economic grounds. Great men are dangerous; they are accidents, exceptions, tempests, which are strong enough to question things which it has taken time to build and establish. Explosive material must not only be discharged harmlessly, but, if possible, its discharge must be _prevented_ altogether, this is the fundamental instinct of all civilised society.

897.

He who thinks over the question of how the type man may be elevated to its highest glory and power, will realise from the start that he must place himself beyond morality; for morality was directed in its essentials at the opposite goal--that is to say, its aim was to arrest and to annihilate that glorious development wherever it was in process of accomplishment. For, as a matter of fact, development of that sort implies that such an enormous number of men must be subservient to it, that a _counter-movement_ is only too natural: the weaker, more delicate, more mediocre existences, find it necessary to take up sides _against_ that glory of life and power; and for that purpose they must get a new valuation of themselves by means of which they are able to condemn, and if possible to destroy, life in this high degree of plenitude. Morality is therefore essentially the expression of hostility to life, in so far as it would overcome vital types.

898.

_The strong of the future._--To what extent necessity on the one hand and accident on the other have attained to conditions from which a _stronger species_ may be reared: this we are now able to understand and to bring about consciously; we can now create those conditions under which such an elevation is possible.

Hitherto education has always aimed at the utility of society: _not_ the greatest possible utility for the future, but the utility of the society actually extant. What people required were "instruments" for this purpose. Provided the _wealth of forces were greater,_ it would be possible to think of a draft being made upon them, the aim of which would not be the utility of society, but some future utility.

The more people grasped to what extent the present form of society was in such a state of transition as sooner or later to be _no longer able to exist for its own sake,_ but only as a means in the hands of a stronger race, the more _this task would have to be brought forward._

The increasing belittlement of man is precisely the impelling power which leads one to think of the cultivation of a _stronger race:_ a race which would have a surplus precisely there where the dwarfed species was weak and growing weaker (will, responsibility, self-reliance, the ability to postulate aims for one's self).

The means would be those which history teaches: _isolation_ by means of preservative interests which would be the reverse of those generally accepted; exercise in transvalued valuations; distance as pathos; a clean conscience in what to-day is most despised and most prohibited.

The _levelling_ of the mankind of Europe is the great process which should not be arrested; it should even be accelerated. The necessity of _cleaving gulfs,_ of _distance,_ of the _order of rank,_ is therefore imperative; but not the necessity of retarding the process above mentioned.

This _levelled-down_ species requires justification as soon as it is attained: its justification is that it exists for the service of a higher and sovereign race which stands upon it and can only be elevated upon its shoulders to the task which it is destined to perform. Not only a ruling race whose task would be consummated in ruling alone: but a race with _vital spheres_ of its own, with an overflow of energy for beauty, bravery, culture, and manners, even for the most abstract thought; a yea-saying race which would be able to allow itself every kind of great luxury--strong enough to be able to dispense with the tyranny of the imperatives of virtue, rich enough to be in no need of economy or pedantry; beyond good and evil; a forcing-house for rare and exceptional plants.

899.

Our psychologists, whose glance dwells involuntarily upon the symptoms of decadence, lead us to mistrust intellect ever more and more. People persist in seeing only the weakening, pampering, and sickening effects of intellect, but there are now going to appear:--

New Cynics The union of intellectual barbarians Experimentalists superiority with well-being Conquerors and an overflow of strength.

900.

I point to something new: certainly for such a democratic community there is a danger of barbarians; but these are sought only down below. There is also _another kind of barbarians_ who come from the heights: a kind of conquering and ruling natures, which are in search of material that they can mould. Prometheus was a barbarian of this stamp.

901.

_Principal standpoint:_ one should not suppose the mission of a higher species to be the _leading_ of inferior men (as Comte does, for instance); but the inferior should be regarded as the _foundation_ upon which a higher species may live their higher life--upon which alone they _can stand._ The conditions under which a _strong, noble_ species maintains itself (in the matter of intellectual discipline) are precisely the reverse of those under which the industrial masses--the tea-grocers _à la_ Spencer--subsist. Those qualities which are within the grasp only of the _strongest_ and most _terrible_ natures, and which make their existence possible leisure, adventure, disbelief, and even dissipation--would necessarily ruin mediocre natures --and does do so--when they possess them. In the case of the latter industry, regularity, moderation, and strong "conviction" are in their proper place--in short, all "gregarious virtues": under their influence these mediocre men become perfect.

902.

_Concerning the ruling types._ The shepherd as opposed to the "lord" (the former is only a means to the maintenance of the herd; the latter, the _purpose_ for which the herd exists).

903.

The temporary preponderance of social valuations is both comprehensible and useful; it is a matter of building a _foundation_ upon which a _stronger_ species will ultimately be made possible. The standard of strength: to be able to live under the transvalued valuations, and to desire them for all eternity. State and society regarded as a sub-structure: economic point of view, education conceived as breeding.

904.

A consideration which "free spirits" _lack_: that the same discipline which makes a strong nature still stronger, and enables it to go in for big undertakings, _breaks up and withers the mediocre_: doubt --_la largeur de cœur_--experiment--independence.

905.

The hammer. How should men who must value in the opposite way be constituted?--Men who possess _all_ the qualities of the modern soul, but are strong enough to convert them into real health? The means to their task.

906.

The strong man, who is mighty in the instincts of a strong and healthy organisation, digests his deeds just as well as he digests his meals; he even gets over the effects of heavy fare: in the main, however, he is led by an inviolable and severe instinct which prevents his doing anything which goes against his grain, just as he never does anything against his taste.

907.

_Can_ we _foresee_ the favourable circumstances under which creatures of the highest value might arise? It is a thousand times too complicated, and the probabilities of failure are _very great:_ on that account we cannot be inspired by the thought of striving after them! Scepticism.--To oppose this we can enhance courage, insight, hardness, independence, and the feeling of responsibility; we can also subtilise and learn to forestall the delicacy of the scales, so that favourable accidents may be enlisted on our side.

908.

Before we can even think of acting, an enormous amount of work requires to be done. In the main, however, _a cautious exploitation_ of the present conditions would be our best and most advisable course of action. The actual _creation_ of conditions such as those which occur by accident, presupposes the existence of _iron_ men such as have not yet lived. Our first task must be to make the personal ideal _prevail_ and _become realised_! He who has understood the nature of man and _the origin of mankind's greatest specimens, shudders before man and takes flight from all action_: this is the result of inherited valuations!!

My consolation is, that the nature of man is _evil,_ and this guarantees his _strength_!

909.

_The typical forms of self-development, or the eight principal questions:_--

1. Do we want to be more multifarious or more simple than we are?

2. Do we want to be happier than we are, or more indifferent to both happiness and unhappiness?

3. Do we want to be more satisfied with ourselves, or more exacting and more inexorable?

4. Do we want to be softer, more yielding, and more human than we are, or more inhuman?

5. Do we want to be more prudent than we are, or more daring?

6. Do we want to attain a goal, or do we want to avoid all goals (like the philosopher, for instance, who scents a boundary, a _cul-de-sac,_ a prison, a piece of foolishness in every goal)?

7. Do we want to become more respected, or more feared, or more _despised_?

8. Do we want to become tyrants, and seducers, or do we want to become shepherds and gregarious animals?

910.

_The type of my disciples._--To such men as _concern vie in any way_ I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities of all kinds. I wish them to be acquainted with profound self-contempt, with the martyrdom of self-distrust, with the misery of the defeated: I have no pity for them; because I wish them to have the only thing which to-day proves whether a man has any value or not, namely, _the capacity of sticking to his guns._

911.

The happiness and self-contentedness of the lazzaroni, or the blessedness of "beautiful souls," or the consumptive love of Puritan pietists, proves nothing in regard to _the order of rank_ among men. As a great educator one ought inexorably to thrash a race of such blissful creatures into unhappiness. The danger of belittlement and of a slackening of powers follows immediately I am _opposed_ to happiness _à la_ Spinoza or _à la_ Epicurus, and to all the relaxation of contemplative states. But when virtue is the means to such happiness, well then, _one must master even virtue._

912.

I cannot see how any one can make up for having missed going to _a good school_ at the proper time. Such a person does not know himself; he walks through life without ever having learned to walk. His soft muscles betray themselves at every step. Occasionally life itself is merciful enough to make a man recover this lost and severe schooling: by means of periods of sickness, perhaps, which exact the utmost will-power and self-control; or by means of a sudden state of poverty, which threatens his wife and child, and which may force a man to such activity as will restore energy to his slackened tendons, and a _tough spirit_ to his will to life. The most desirable thing of all, however, is, under all circumstances to have severe discipline _at the right time, i.e._ at that age when it makes us proud that people should expect great things from us. For this is what distinguishes hard schooling, as good schooling, from every other schooling, namely, that a good deal is demanded, that a good deal is severely exacted; that goodness, nay even excellence itself, is required as if it were normal; that praise is scanty, that leniency is non-existent; that blame is sharp, practical, and without reprieve, and has no regard to talent and antecedents. We are in every way in need of such a school: and this holds good of corporeal as well as of spiritual things; it would be fatal to draw distinctions here! The same discipline makes the soldier and the scholar efficient; and, looked at more closely, there is no true scholar who has not the instincts of a true soldier in his veins. To be able to command and to be able to obey in a proud fashion; to keep one's place in rank and file, and yet to be ready at any moment to lead; to prefer danger to comfort; not to weigh what is permitted and what is forbidden in a tradesman's balance; to be more hostile to pettiness, slyness, and parasitism than to wickedness. What is it that one _learns_ in a hard school?--_to obey_ and _to command._

913.

We should _repudiate_ merit--and do only that which stands above all praise and above all understanding.

914.

The new forms of morality:--

Faithful vows concerning that which one wishes to do or to leave undone; complete and definite abstention from many things. Tests as to whether one is _ripe_ for such discipline.

915.

It is my desire to _naturalise asceticism:_ I would substitute the old intention of asceticism, "self-denial," by my own intention, _self-strengthening:_ a gymnastic of the will; a period of abstinence and occasional fasting of every kind, even in things intellectual; a casuistry in deeds, in regard to the opinions which we derive from our powers; we should try our hand at adventure and at deliberate dangers. (_Dîners chez Magny:_ all intellectual gourmets with spoilt stomachs.) _Tests_ ought also to be devised for discovering a man's power in keeping his word.

916.

The things which have become _spoilt_ through having been abused by the Church:--

(1) _Asceticism._--People have scarcely got the courage yet to bring to light the natural utility and necessity of asceticism for the purpose of the _education of the will._ Our ridiculous world of education, before whose eyes the useful State official hovers as an ideal to be striven for, believes that it has completed its duty when it has instructed or trained the brain; it never even suspects that something else is first of all necessary --the education of _will-power;_ tests are devised for everything except for the most important thing of all: whether a man can _will,_ whether he can _promise;_ the young man completes his education without a question or an inquiry having been made concerning the problem of the highest value of his nature.